24 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
sembling those of the English thrush. Several are 
remarkably beautiful, among* which may be reckoned 
a small kind of paroquet of a glossy purple, and a 
species of red, yellow, and green wookpecker, with 
whose feathers the gods were dressed, and the helmets 
and handsome cloaks of the chiefs are ornamented. 
But the feathered tribes of Hawaii are not in general 
distinguished by variety of plumage, or melody in 
their notes. There are wild geese in the mountains, 
and ducks near the lagoons or ponds in the vicinity 
of the sea shore; the domestic fowl was found there by 
their first discoverer, and though now seldom used as 
an article of food, is raised for the supply of shipping. 
In common with the other islands of the Pacific, they 
are entirely free from every noxious and poisonous 
reptile, excepting centipedes, which are neither large 
nor numerous. 
Fish are not so abundant on their shores as around 
many of the other islands; they have, however, seve¬ 
ral varieties, and the inhabitants procure a tolerable 
supply. 
, The vegetable productions, though less valuable and 
abundant than in some of the islands both to the west 
and the south, are found in no small variety, and the 
most serviceable are cultivated with facility. The 
natives subsist principally on the roots of the arum 
esculentum, which they call taro, on the convolvulus 
batatas, or sweet potato, called by them u'dra, and uhi, 
or yam. The principal indigenous fruits are the uru, or 
bread-fruit; the niu, or cocoa-nut; the maia, or plantain; 
the ohia, a species of eugenia; and the strawberry and 
raspberry. Oranges, limes, citrons, grapes, pine-apples, 
papaw-apples, cucumbers, and water melons, have been 
